Whoa: Mark Sanford missing since Thursday? Update: Sanford OK

Not “missing” per se, just taking some time away from the office to write. Er, without telling his wife — or the lieutenant governor — where he was going. Or for how long.

By god, I think he’s presidential material.

First lady Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press her husband has been gone for several days and she doesn’t know where. She said she was not concerned. Jenny Sanford said the governor said he needed time away from their children to write something.

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer declined to discuss where the governor was. Sawyer told The Associated Press that Sanford was taking time to “recharge” after his failed fight against federal stimulus money.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said he didn’t know where Sanford is but said he had not been put in charge.

Neither the governor’s office nor the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for governors, has been able to reach Sanford after he left the mansion in a black SLED Suburban SUV, said Sen. Jake Knotts and three others familiar with the situation but who declined to be identified.

Sanford’s last known whereabouts were near Atlanta, where a mobile telephone tower picked up a signal from his phone, authorities said.

Both his personal cell phone and his state phone are turned off and, according to one critic who claims to have spoken with the police, this isn’t the first time that he’s ditched his security detail. I assume this means he’s not running in 2012, as the thought of a C-in-C who’d jet off in the dead of night to Mexico to lie on a rock and just “be” isn’t what most Republicans have in mind for an age of terror — unless he takes the guy who carries the nuclear football with him, of course. Exit question: First this, and now news this afternoon of an earthquake in Alaska. Is he who bestrides the earth like a god finally taking cosmic revenge on stimulus opponents?